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But Mr Charles said the TaxPayers' Alliance was being "mischievous" with its report which was released yesterday .

He said: "Firstly the problem with these Home Office figures is that it does not include the significant number of officers we have working in collaboration with the other four forces in the East Midlands. And secondly, I have a problem with the term 'front line' which they say are essentially bobbies on the beat.

"In Derbyshire there are a number of specialist officers who work extremely hard to, for example, detect and monitor those people who buy, sell and share child pornography. Similarly there are officers in units that examine financial crimes such as fraud and credit card cloning.

"They are not classed in these figures as 'visible and available' but I think the public would agree with me when I say the work they are doing is as much front line as those who are physically seen walking the streets of the county."

The report compares how many police officers and Police Community Support Officers are "visible and available" according to Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabularies.

Derbyshire's figure of 10.2% is below the national average of 11.8% with the City of London having the lowest figure at 7.2%. Nottinghamshire has one of the top five figures at 16.5%.

Matthew Sinclair, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Many police forces can do more to use their resources efficiently and get more of their officers out on the front line fighting crime.

"Of course the police have some important work to do that will sometimes legitimately stop them being available for visible policing, but the large differences between forces suggests some are giving taxpayers much better value for money.."

Comments

Alan Charles is supposed to be "restoring trust" in the Police yet he seems totally paranoid about hearing any complaint made against the Police. I personally regret having voted for this man. I fail to see what he is all about!?

Let's look at the facts here rather than get all revved up on headlines:
No police officer can work for 24 hours, they do 8 hours each like normal people. So that means in any 1 day there have to be 3 shifts on duty. Take into account those who have their days off (like the rest of us) and actually there are more like 5 shifts.
So. The '10% on duty at any one time' is actually 50% of the police force.
Now that is just the uniform cops out on the streets.
Once you take into account those solving murders, catching burglars or dealing with terrorism (I could go on), it quickly explains where all the cops are. If any of you want the police to stop catching paedophiles etc, then please speak up...
I don't think that 50% of cops being on the beat is bad actually and if only the TaxPayers Alliance and the media would be factual and avoid exciting headlines, there would be no need for all this 'police beating'.
Well done to Alan Charles for backing the police on this. I'm glad I voted for him.

In his PCC election 'manifesto' he said that his No.1 priority was 'Maintaining Community Policing working in partnership with Local Authority Community Safety Partnerships to reduce anti-social behaviour.
Circa 10% of Police staff on the beat doesn't quite seem to make this possible. I hope Mr Charles is not going to be sucked into an existing establishment where 'It's OK because it's always been like that' is the norm. Get out an ask your customers what they want before criticising statistics that tell you what is going on today. You were elected to introduce change, not agree with what was considered to be the norm up until now. A few weeks in, and you are now suggesting that the Police have you well under THEIR wing as opposed to the other way round. A great start!

Fighting financial fraud behind the scenes LOL - have they tried the City of London for any leads?
I remember the (Costner, Connelly) Untouchables movie where it seemed a regular occurance to chat to a 'beat booby' at any time of the night. I doubt anyone will write a scene again where something like that is just a natural and just thought.

A lot of residents in my street leave their bins out on the street and they are regularly overturned by drunks and yobs. This is easilly avoided if people take their bins into their back gardens after being emptied.
More serously, we have had a spate of bins being set on fire, which has led to an appeal by the Police and Fire Brigade for people to take their bins in, but they still leave them out, which leads to Fire Brigade call outs, Police investigations, and serious criminal damage.
The Police are stretched and have far more challenging problems to deal with than chasing around after preventable crimes like this.
I do not agree with the position of Police and Crimes Commissioner, but he does have a point about the criticism against our Police Force when they are struggling with a shortage of officers on the beat.

This is just smoke and mirrors by the TaxPayers Alliance.
Sure it would be lovely to have a copper on every street corner but not at the expense of the other ones who fight terrorism etc.
Imagine a hospital that had loads of nurses but no surgeons...

I thought the commissioner was supposed to give the public the policing that the public (who elected him to his well paid job) want - not excuse the ongoing parthetic lack of police on the streets.
Sounds like the police already have Mr Charles well trained.

Not seen a proper copper for a while. Only the odd powerless PCSO.
I remember seeing a 'modern day' copper in town a couple of years back. He was around 5' 6", had long(ish) hair, ill fitting uniform and was generally a scruffy runt. He'd have probably struggled to arrest a shop mannequin.

Lampie87, try taking your bin in after it has been emptied, it won't be thrown over then. I live in a terraced house, as do many others on our street, yet we all take our bins in after they are emptied. If you leave your bin on the street 24/7 and if your pavements are narrow perhaps people are fed up of having to walk in the road to get past it.